“A Thousand and One”: ‘The Persian version’ earned two awards

• One of the key victors who received a trophy was Maryam Keshavarz.
• The festival has exhibited 111 feature films and 64 short films.
• The esteemed Grand Jury Prize was given to A Thousand and One by A.V. Rockwell in the same division.

Today saw the announcement of the jury and audience prize winners for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. One of the key victors who received a trophy was Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version, which took home the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award as well as the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. The festival has exhibited 111 feature films and 64 short films.

A huge Iranian-American family is followed in Keshavarz’s film The Persian Version as they gather for the clan patriarch’s heart transplant procedure before a secret is unearthed that leads an estranged mother and daughter to begin an emotional and therapeutic examination of the past.

The esteemed Grand Jury Prize was given to A Thousand and One by A.V. Rockwell in the same division. Teyana Taylor and Josiah Cross star in the movie, which follows the journey of the rebellious Inez and what happens after she decides to abduct 6-year-old Terry from the New York City foster care system because she feels it is the last necessary crime on her long journey to what she believes will be her ultimate redemption.

Other movies that won major prizes at the festival included Christopher Zalla’s Radical (Festival Favorite), Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary), Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia (U.S. Documentary Audience Award), and D. Smith’s Kokomo City (Innovator and Audience Awards).

A radical views while residing in a border town in Mexico, Eugenio Derbez assumes the role of a dissatisfied and disgruntled teacher who is eager to discover and investigate new strategies for scholastic improvement for his students. The life of poet Nikki Giovanni is the central theme of Going to Mars. While Kokomo City chronicles the experiences of four transgender people who are attempting to address the overt and covert differences between the Black community and their own selves, Beyond Utopia focuses on families leaving their repressive circumstances in North Korea.

Jurors for the U.S. Dramatic Competition this year included Jeremy O. Harris, Eliza Hittman, and Marlee Matlin; for the U.S. Documentary Competition, W. Kamau Bell, Ramona Diaz, and Funa Maduka; for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, Shozo Ichiyama, Annemarie Jacir, and Funa Maduka; and for the World Cinema Documentary Competition, Karim Amer, Petra Costa, and Alexander Nanau

“This year’s Festival has been an extraordinary experience,” said Joana Vicente, Sundance Institute CEO. “The artists that comprise the 2023 Sundance Film Festival have demonstrated a sense of urgency and dedication to excellence in independent film. Today’s award winners highlight our programs’ most impressive achievements in the current moment of cinematic arts. I hope you will join me in congratulating our winners, as well as thanking all artists across sections for sharing their stories with the Sundance community.”

The 2023 Festival’s key event will be the announcement of the winners. 111 feature-length and 64 short films, which were chosen from 15,856 submissions, have already been screened in Park City, Salt Lake City, and at the Sundance Resort, and more than 75% of the feature films, along with shorts and independent episodic content, are still accessible online through Sunday, January 29.

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